Play Life, Live Games: ‘There’s something out there waiting for us’

Thursday

Earlier this year, I wrote about the announcement that Sony was working on a game based on the Predator film franchise, with the Illfonic game studio taking the lead in developing it.

The game was announced with a cinematic trailer that didn’t show any actual gameplay, and details about the game were pretty scarce other than it would be an asymmetrical multiplayer game with some people playing the human soldiers against one person playing the Predator.

Last month, Sony released the first trailer with gameplay footage for “Predator: Hunting Ground” at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Then more recently, Sony invited a group of games media to its headquarters in California (I’m still upset I wasn’t invited) to actually play an early build of the game, so we finally have a better idea of what the title will be like.

There have been several games based on the Predator films released in the past, with the 1994 “Alien vs. Predator” game for the Atari Jaguar probably the most well received. Unfortunately, there have been a lot more bad Predator games than good ones.

That said, the gameplay footage that’s been released this week for “Predator: Hunting Grounds” looks like Illfonic is doing the franchise justice.

Playing as the Predator, you’ll be able to switch between your normal view and infrared view at any time, you’ll cloak yourself to avoid detection, when you kill one of the soldiers you’ll be able to keep their head and spine as a trophy (the game will be rated M for Mature), and when you get shot or injured, you’ll leave a trail of the iconic florescent-green blood that can be easily tracked.

Playing as the soldiers, you can cover yourself up in mud to shield yourself from infrared like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the 1987 original movie.

As the soldiers, there will be a couple ways to win the match. Each level will have different objectives to complete. The one shown off recently required the troop to repair a radio tower while taking out computer-controlled enemy soldiers and then calling in a helicopter to pick you up and escape. You can also kill the Predator.

“Predator: Hunting Grounds” is scheduled to come out next year on the PlayStation 4, and is already high on my list of most anticipated games.Dusty Ricketts is the editor of The Destin Log and The Walton Sun newspapers and can be reached at dricketts@thedestinlog.com.

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